Merger and acquisition projects are among the most time-consuming in the deal-making sphere. They are usually connected with storage and exchange of different inside corporate files that are expected to be analyzed deeply before the transaction begins: client, buyer, investor or any other stakeholder has to have the relevant information on what is the situation inside the firm he has an opportunity to cooperate with. That is why, the organization has an obligation to provide its stakeholders with all the required files and with the room where they can familiarize themselves with the documents. In the era of deep digitalization, the most smart and simple solution for data storing and investigation is a VDR – digital repository for data which is accessible all the time in any place on the planet.
VDRs are especially helpful when it comes to due diligence. As due diligence is treated as quite painful and challenging process, all the participants of the deal are as a rule looking forward to passing this part of the M&A as soon as possible. As for secure file sharing mechanism and the method to prepare a fast business verification with the most effective decision But, inattentive attitude towards confidential information examination may have unforeseen and unpleasant outcome. That is why, a prospective buyer is always engaged into proper due diligence course. Virtual repositories are enhanced with some features that are to facilitate due diligence in particular and the business conduct in general. Selected main tools virtual repositories provide their users with to facilitate due diligence are listed below.
Avant-garde safety system
Throughout merger and acquisition projects, a lot of secret documents will be exchanged with the prospective partners. Thus, all who take part in the deal are concerned about keeping the information in the most protected environment that can be set up. Decent vendors provide their customers with virtual data rooms that are equipped with a military-level safety system: the data is saved from misuse, destruction, leakage, etc. The complexity of protection is as a rule provided by such tools as regular backups, 256-bit data encryption, virus scanning, firewalls, 2-step verification process, “fence view” option, dynamic watermarks, etc. – all the mentioned tools are aimed at guaranteeing safety to the secret corporate data.
Permission groups
In the course of due diligence not all the users should browse all the documents and files: a virtual platform should allow the virtual data room owner to sort VDR visitors into permission groups. Such categories offer a possibility to establish the level of data disclosure and to regulate the accessibility of the information. For this reason, the virtual room owner is the only one to decide who can find what and how long for inside a virtual platform.
Audit reports
Reputable virtual platforms provide their owners with an activity tracking option – the option that gives a possibility to follow all the activity of all the known VDR visitors inside the virtual room. Regular audit reports are full of the information on who entered the virtual data room, when, how much time for, which files were viewed, saved, improved, etc. Owing to activity tracking feature the platform owners have a chance to find the most engaged bidders and to ensure themselves that in a case of any possible arguments with the colleagues or potential partners the report might be used as evidence.
User-friendly interface
Due diligence seems to be a pretty time-consuming and exhausting process. Therefore, the simplicity of exploitation belongs to the crucially important features that have to be offered by a platform provider: businessmen prefer to work inside intuitive and comfortable repositories that may be navigated without any additional training. Avant-garde search system along with filtering instruments such a search by keywords, uploading date, file names etc. accelerate the navigation in the repository. The integration with Microsoft office means that the room visitors have a possibility to work with Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents and are not obliged to modify them. All these tools help VDR users to concentrate on due diligence. Also, invention of the mobile application accelerates the information analysis significantly as all the data is synchronized on all the gadget and the room users might view the files wherever and whenever it seems to be comfortable for them.
